Visa grants have fallen by 84% between April and September 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, highlighting the ‘devastating impact' of immigration policy changes on the adult social care workforce.

Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, said: ‘We are already battling a domestic workforce crisis, with 70,000 fewer British workers in the sector over the past two years. The pipeline of international recruits was keeping services afloat, but now even that lifeline is being cut off, and care providers are left scrambling to fill shortages, unable to deliver the amount of care they once could. How can we build a compassionate system when the workers at its heart are treated with such little regard?

‘We cannot solve the care crisis if we ask workers to leave behind their loved ones to come here. Restoring the right to bring dependants is not just the humane thing to do, it's essential to attracting the workforce we desperately need. Let us ensure that those who care for others can also care for their own families.'

Care England is urging the government to:

• Restore the right for care workers to bring their dependants to the UK, acknowledging their essential role in society and treating them with the dignity and respect they deserve.
• Increase investment in the sector to enhance pay, working conditions, and career opportunities for both international and domestic care workers, creating an attractive and sustainable workforce.
• Establish a fully funded, long-term workforce plan for adult social care, integrating these reforms and more to secure the sector's future and meet the growing demand for care.

'Care work is about connection and compassion. It's time the government showed the same compassion to the people who make it possible,' Prof Green added.